Valencia, Mark J. &
Van Dyke, Jon M. - Vietnam's national Interests and the Law of the Sea, trong
báo Ocean Development and International Law, Vol. 25, trang 217-250.

Vietnam, Government of
the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Statement on the Territorial Sea, the
Contiguous Zone, the Exclusive Economic Zone, and the Continental Shelf of
Vietnam. In Limits in the Seas. No. 99, Straight Baselines: Vietnam.
Washington, DC: United States Department of State, Bureau of Intelligence and Research
(1983).

III- POSTFACE: Closing remarks by Nguyễn Dư-Phủ (Nguyễn
Khắc-Kham) and Hà Mai-Phương on the book's main points
and on the confusion to be cleared away between the Vietnamese called
Biển Ðông and the Chinese called Nan-Hai.

At
present time, five countries in the area are claiming that a number of islands
in Vietnam's Spratly Islands belong either wholly or partly to their
sovereignty. These countries are: Communist China, Taiwan, the Philippines,
Malaysia and Brunei. The Paracel Islands were absorbed militarily by Communist
China in 1974.

In
addition to using force and violence to occupy some islands, Communist China
has carried more systematic actions. In 1983, Communist China produced a new
map that expands the limits of the Eastern Sea, which they renamed South Sea.
On that new map, the entire South China Sea falls within the sovereignty of
China, extending eastward to the Philippines coastline, westward to the Vietnam
seacoast, and southward to Malaysia. In February l 992, the Chinese Communists
issued a law stating that military vessels and scientific vessels (meaning oil
rigs) going through these waters must request their permission. In May 1992,
they agreed to let the American oil company, Crestone, start drilling
operations within an area of 25,000 square kilometers lying west of the Paracel
Islands. They have on several occasions allowed oil survey vessels to sail
deeply into the Gulf of Tonkin, close to Haiphong seaport and within seventy
miles of Thai-Binh. To support these assertions of sovereignty they sent a
group of mainland scholars to Taiwan to cooperate with local scholars to set up
a joint China-Taiwan agency that categorically announced that the entire
maritime area mentioned above belongs to China! That joint agency has the
responsibility to collect, study and disseminate materials that would
demonstrate China's sovereignty over the entire Eastern Sea area. Beside using
the intellectual approach, Communist China during the past several years has
prepared military measures to protect those "territorial waters".
Because both the Hoang-Sa and Truong-Sa Islands are located very far from
China, the Chinese Communists have reinforced and are reinforcing the Blue
Water Fleet in their scheme to control the area through three different
measures:

(1)They
bought from Ukraine an aircraft carrier that can accommodate eighteen SU-27
planes, and also converted a gigantic cargo ship into another aircraft carrier.

(2)They
bought from Iran the technique of midair refueling in order to increase the
range of their fighter planes.

(3)They
built on Hoang-Sa Islands a naval base that has an airfield where fixed-winged
airplanes can land on and take off, they also built fresh-water reservoirs, and
have presently thousands of troops on that base.

The
Chinese Communists' naval strength has also been boosted with twenty-four
US-27s newly purchased from Russia as the equivalents of the most up-to-date
US-made F-15s, while at the same time has been reinforced the submarine force
within their fleet. Thus far the Chinese communists have occupied eight islands
in the Spratlys, setting up sovereignty markers on each of them. During the
past few months, they have built a base in the area of underwater reefs which
the Philippines had previously claimed as part of their sovereignty. When the
Philippines protested, the Chinese communists first denied, then confirmed that
the area simply serves as living quarters for Chinese fishermen working there.
Just a few days ago, the Philippines ordered that base destroyed despite the
fact that the day before both sides had just started negotiations in Beijing
with a view to resolving the differences. No one can deny that both the
Spratlys and the Paracels belong to Vietnam. No one has the right to take
advantage of the current weakness of the Vietnamese Communists due to the
wasting of national resources during the past few decades to try to parcel out
and occupy the territory or the sea space of Vietnam.

The
Vietnamese Communists must bear total responsibility for having let the
Spratlys and the Paracels fall into the hands of foreign countries, and they
must assume the task of recovering those lost islands. The Vietnamese
Communists cannot ignore these vital facts. if they invoke the inferiority of
their navy and air forces in the defense of territorial waters, they will be
even more guilty. Indeed, they have deliberately destroyed the national
strength, they have imprisoned or obliterated the powerful South Vietnam's
armed forces led by superior cadres of intelligent, experienced and courageous
officers. They have used national resources for the aggressive war against
Cambodia in order to assist in the hegemony scheme of the Soviet Union. All this
has resulted in the exhaustion and bankruptcy of national union, the breakup of
that solidarity which is so essential to the national defense. Rather than to
the other countries, the Spratlys and the Paracels belong to Vietnam from the
viewpoints of geography, history and legislation as well as sovereignty.

In late
July 1994 when a minority of Chinese Communist scholars in cahoots with a
minority of Taiwan scholars brazenly claimed sovereignty over those
archipelagoes, Vietnamese intellectuals in the United States met in California
to issue a statement affirming Vietnam's sovereignty over the Spratlys and the
Paracels in the Eastern Sea. In response to that declaration, Scholar Vu Huu
San undertook a research project on the geography of Bien Bong (Eastern Sea)
and ore those islands to demonstrate Vietnamese sovereignty over them. The
research has been completed, resulting in this book "Dia-ly Bien Dong Voi
Hoang-Sa va Truong-Sa" (Eastern Sea Geography and the Paracel, Spratly
Archipelagoes).

This
study is extremely rigorous and quite revealing. The author has demonstrated
solid knowledge in oceanography, geology, biology, botany, and culturology. His
study has linked data on those islands with the Vietnamese mainland to prove
that the archipelagoes are a natural extension of Vietnam's continental shelf.
Moreover, being a former high- ranking officer of the Republic of Vietnam Navy
who had led many operations around those islands and observed them closely, the
author is able to describe in details those islands, with regard to their forms
and shapes, dimensions, flora, geology, resources, etc... including the exact
location of each island vis-a-vis other ones, the Vietnamese coastline, and the
coastline of each of those countries that have made claims, namely Communist
China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei.

The
author does not overlook aspects of international maritime law that pertain to
the Spratlys and the Paracels. Even the problem of historical implementing
Vietnamese sovereignty over those islands has been appropriately addressed.

The data
presented in this research work have clearly demonstrated that Vietnam has
sovereignty over these waters. The materials cited in reference are both
abundant and pertinent. Scholar Vu Huu San has referred to many important
documents written by the most authoritative authors. The book also contained
133 maps, graphs and pictures.

The
Committee for the Protection of Vietnam's Territorial Integrity, founded
by a group of Vietnamese intellectuals in the USA, is very honored to present
this valuable book by scholar Vu Huu San.

In the Preface, Dr.
Nguyen Van Canh has just stressed both the high scientific standard and the
timely significance of Dia Ly Bien Dong voi Hoang-Sa va Truong-Sa by Scholar Vu
Huu-San.

This postface will
confine itself to summarizing the book's main points and to the confusion to be
cleared away between the Vietnamese called Bien Dong and the Chinese-called
Nan-Hai.

Concerning the book's
main points, they may be briefly summarized as follows:

1) From the remotest times, Bien Dong (The
Vietnamese Eastern Sea) was the cradle for the sea-oriented culture of the
sea-faring Viet people.

2) Bien Dong shows a great deal of marvelous
physical phenomena which have never been known in any other sea in the world.

3) Bien Dong is obviously characterized by both
its specific fauna and flora.

4) Bien Dong is a gigantic reservoir of natural
energies and resources which have been accumulated therein from time immemorial
down to our own days. The oil field which has been formed at its bottom by
organic substances driven from the Vietnam's rivers to Bien Dong is
unmistakably a Vietnamese national heritage.

5) The sea-faring Viet people who were our remote
ancestors did have the run of Bien Dong several millennia ago. Hoang-Sa and
Truong-Sa Archipelagoes located in that sea have been their centers of
activities since the end of the Ice Age.

6) For their geographic location, both Hoang-Sa
and Truong-Sa Archipelagoes are quite nearer Vietnam than China's mainland.
Both in terms of physical geography, are obviously located on the natural
prolongation of Vietnam's mainland.

With regard to the
Vietnamese-called Bien Dong and the Chinese-called Nan-Hai, some clarification
should be made about them as follows:

-Vietnam has more than 2000 kilometers of sea-coast starting from its
northern frontier with China to the Gulf of Siam/ Thailand.

-The eastern part of that long sea-coast has had, since time immemorial,
the appellation of Bien Dong. This appellation has been widely used among the
common people in Vietnam as evidenced by its frequent appearance in Vietnamese
folk-songs and common sayings.

It has been found
translated into foreign languages, particularly into French as l'Ocean Oriental
(cf. Methode pour etudier la geographie, 1736, by l'Abbe Nicolas DuFresnoy
[1674-1755]).

Following are a few
instances of those folk-songs and common sayings related to Bien Dong:

"Our debt of
gratitude to our father is
like a soaring high mountain!
Our debt of gratitude to our mother is
like the Bien Dong immense waters!"

"If husband and wife
get along well together,
They would easily drain of even the Bien Dong's waters!"

"Poor Da-trang (a
kind of small crab) vainly attempting
to carry sand for filling up the Bien Dong!"

"In case someone
("ai" implying some damsel addressed to by a young man) has seen
enough of Huong-Thuy and Ngu-Binh,
Let her go together with me to Binh-Dinh,
if she is pleased with the proposal.
True, Binh- Dinh is not as smart as the Capital of the Kingdom,
But Binh-Dinh has no dry, arid ground.
Furthermore, it has six chains of high mountains.
There are also the Bien Dong with its overflowing waves,
And the high older tower which will be used as a pen-brush to
write down your hero's name on the blue clouds!"

'This morning as I (King
Dinh Tien-Hoang)
got to the Bien Dong for a bath,
I have subdued an emerging nine-twisted dragon, Heigh-ho!
Where are you going to, riding on that kind of snake?
I am going to stroke the Tiger's beard! (= to face up to my formidable enem !
Heigh-ho!"

As can just be seen, the
Bien Dong appellation has so deeply entered the popular consciousness that it
has been commonly used by the Vietnamese to denominated the Eastern Sea of
Vietnam. However an awkward question may arise: Why has that Vietnamese-called
Bien Dong also been called Nan-Hai by the Chinese and Mer de Chine
(meridionale) and South China Sea by the Westerners ?

To properly solve the
question, let us try looking up the above mentioned appellations in the most
authoritative dictionaries!

According to the Chinese
dictionary Ts'u Hai, "Nan-Hai is the name of a sea located to
the South of Kwangtung and Fuchien, to the West of the Taiwan Straits, to the
East of Vietnam, a French colony. In the South there are the Malay Peninsula,
Borneo lsland, a British colony, the Philippines, an American colony. For these
reasons, the sovereignty over the Sea is common to such countries as China,
England, France, USA and Japan"(cf. Ts'u Hai, reprinted in
1948, p. 218).

Another Chinese
dictionary, Ts'u Yuan gives a similar definition of Nan-Hai and also
locates it to the south of Kwangtung and Fuchien, however we find here a novel
detail: the demarcation between the Hai-Nan Straits and the Gulf of Tonkin(Ts'u Yuan, 1949 re-edition, p. 234).

Always in Ts'u Yuan
but in its Hong Kong 1951 revised edition, reprinted in 1984, Nan-Hai is
presented as follows: "Nan-Hai is the name of a sea which was formerly
called Chang-Hai (Sino-Vietnamese: Chuong-Hai). It is called by the foreigners
South China Sea, located to the South of Fuchien and Kwangtung, to the West of
Taiwan and the Philippines, to the East of Indochina Peninsula and the Malay
Peninsula, to the North of Borneo Island and Sumatra lsland. For sometime in
the past Nan Hai did cover even the Indian Ocean; therefore, we should not
confine its limits to the areas as just mentioned above."(cf. Ts'u
Yuan, Kai Pien Pan, Hong Kong 1984, p. 94).

In the preceding
definitions of Nan-Hai as just quoted, there are the following note worthy
details:

1.Chang Hai, the former name of Nan Hai is located in the south 50
miles from Hai Phong (Kwangtung) district. Thus, Nan Hai is located to the
South of Fuchien and Kwangtung as also mentioned in the preceding documents.

2.Let us note a new detail in Ts'u Yuan, Kai Pien Pan namely: Nan
Hai is called South China Sea by the foreigners (that's the Westerners).

3.We don't know on what historical basis, Ts'u Yuan Kai Pien Pan
has claimed that "for sometime in the past Nan Hai did cover even the
Indian Ocean"!

A comparative
reexamination of the three preceding documents on Nan Hai has led us to the
following remarks:

a.All the three have located Nan Hai to the South of Fuchien and
Kwangtung.

b.The first document, that is Ts'u Hai (1948) stated that Nan
Hai is stretching far to the south to reach the Malay Peninsula and advocated
that China shared sovereignty over Nan Hai together with England, France, the
US and Japan.

c.The second document, that is Ts'u Yuan (1949) was the only
one to give a demarcation between the Hai Nan Straits and the Gulf of Tonkin
then a French colony.

d.The last document, that is Ts'u Yuan, Kai Pien Pan (1951,
1984) took advantage of the ambiguous appellations Mer de Chine (m+ridionale),
South China Sea to suggest that Nan Hai might have stretched away very far to
the South, for sometime as far as to and beyond the Indian Ocean!

In our humble opinion,
formerly Nan Hai of China might have stretched to around the Hai Nan Straits
whose name precisely means "an island off South-China".

Our above opinion is
based on the following definition of Nan Hai found in a Chinese-English
dictionary whose authors are all highly respectable Chinese Scholars: "Nan
Hai: (1) name of a county in Kwangtung Province. (2) the Southern Sea,
stretching from the Taiwan Straits to Kwangtung. (3) in old China, a term far
faraway places in the South."(cf. A New Practical Chinese - English
Dictionary - Editor in Chief: Liang Shih-Chiu; Editors: Chu Liang-Chen,
David Shao, Jeffrey C. Tung, Chung Lu Shen - The Far East Book Co. LTD,
Hong-Kong 1971, page 121, column 2).

We have found in the Ts'u
Yuan, Kai Pien Pan the new appellation Nan Chung Kuo Hai for Nan Hai, appellation
which must have been influenced by such appellations as South China Sea, Mer de
Chine (meridionale) given by the Westerners. (cf. supra Ts'u Yuan,
Kai Pien Pan: "Ngoai nhan xung Nam Trung-Quoc Hai").

All these
three appellations are very vague terms that may be interpreted variously, they
have been obviously interpreted by the Ts'u Yuan, Kai Pien Pan as
meaning the Chinese Sea to the South whereas, in fact, they only mean the sea
off South-China as evidenced by the definition No 2 in the Chinese - English
dictionaryby Liang Shih Chi et al.

The real
meaning of Nan Hai as being: the Sea off South-China has been clearly confirmed
by the definitions respectively given by the Dai Kanwa Jitenby T.
Morohashi, vol. 2 (Tokyo 1957, page 566, column 2) and the Longman
Dictionary of English. Language and Culture(London 1992, p. 209, col.
2) as follows: "Nan Hai = Minami - Shina Kai" (= Sea of
South-China). China Sea = the part of the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of
China."

*

After the
Chinese mainland fell to the Communists' control and especially since 1954, for
political reasons, the Chinese Maoists have rewritten the histories and
reconstructed the maps of both China and the Southeast Asia to carry out Mao
Zedong's expansionists designs. One of their urgent tasks is to redefine the
name Nan-Hai so as to achieve their hegemonist policy.

At
present, Communist China has declared its sovereignty over 80 percent of the
so-called Nan-Hai, leaving only a small portion of the adjacent international
waters to Vietnam and other disputing coastal countries. Due to historical,
economical and political reasons, it has no regards for protests from Vietnam,
the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. It considers Nan-Hai as its
"inner waters", in the same way as the Roman Empire had dubbed the
Mediterranean Sea Mare Nostrum, claiming Roman sovereignty over it!

Communist
China did not recognize the 1954 Geneva Convention on the Law of the Sea(CLOS) with its regulations regarding the territorial, contiguous waters
and continental shelf of the coastal countries. However, in fact, it had no
protest against the 1968 Republic of Vietnam's claim to the Vietnamese
continental shelf. After defeating South Vietnam, Hanoi also reclaimed its sovereignty
over the territorial and continental shelf waters. Again, there was no protest
from Communist China.

The most
recent wrong doing by Communist China was to build up several military
installations on the Mischief Reefs and other underwater reefs in the
extreme-east of the Spratly Archipelago which the Philippines have been
claiming as part of their territory. Communist China has beefed up its islands'
occupational forces and naval power in its so called "Inner waters",
showing thereby its will to control the Eastern Sea Archipelagoes with their
ample petroleum and gas potential resources, much as if "a
breast-feeder forcing her big breast onto the baby's mouth to stop him from
crying" ! Communist China is used to quiet down the weaker countries
by pressuring them into bilateral negotiations in view to finally getting the
upper hands over them.

In
accordance with the Vietnamese common belief in the respect for the whole truth
and the international justice, the Committee for the Protection of Vietnam's
Territorial Integrity solemnly requests that all matters of disagreements
must be taken to the International Court of Justice in the Hague.

Dia-ly
Bien Dong voi Hoang-Sa va Truong-Sa by Scholar Vu Huu-San is a
strictly scientific essay, leaving out for the time being the most decisive
historical and legal considerations.

We
totally agree with him that the Vietnamese have always a genuine love for the
Truth and a scrupulous respect for the Law, that they are always the devout and
earnest believers in the splendid future resulting from a fair international
cooperation. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea(UNCLOS) is just
capable of bringing back the now disturbed harmony between the rival countries
by realizing a stable agreement on an international regime for the Sea.

If the
mankind and civilization have made so far such an advance as today, It is
obviously due to a universal consciousness of the established international
order.

With the
current international Public Law, there is no reason at all for a bellicose
country to attack and occupy by force another weaker country's territory!

Dia-ly
Bien Dong voi Hoang-Sa va Truong-Sa aims primarily at telling out all
the truth about the Eastern Sea.

Once the
common people and the finest Chinese independent scholars of China have become
quite aware of the real situation, they will certainly be ready to thoroughly
sympathize with the Vietnamese and from the Eastern Sea will hopefully
disappear for ever the "men killing men" horrible misdeeds! There is
no reason why so many different human races living together around the Eastern
Sea cannot make good their long overdue dream of everlasting peace and mutual
cooperation!

Nguyen Du-Phu/Ha Mai-Phuong

VIETNAM SUMMARY OF CLAIMS

TYPE, SOURCE, DATE

LIMIT

NOTES

TERRITORIAL SEA

Decree No. 30/C

Jan 80

12nm

Foreign warships must
seek permission to enter contiguous zone/territorial sea at least
30 days in advance; no more than three warships may be present in
territorial sea at one time; before entering territorial sea or contiguous
zone, ships must place weapons in non-operative positions.

These requirements are
not recognized by the U.S. U.S. protested in 1982 and conducted operational
assertions in 1982, 1983, 1985, 1986, 1999-2002.

These claims are not
recognized by the U.S. U.S. protested claims in 1982 and 1987 and conducted
operational assertions in 1996, 1998, 1999-2002.

CONTIGUOUS ZONE

Statement

May 77

24nm

Claim includes
jurisdiction over security matters.

This claim is not
recognized by the U.S. U.S. protested claim in 1982 and 2002.

Decree No. 30/C

Jan 80

In contiguous zone,
submarines required to navigate on the surface and show flag; and aircraft
prohibited from being launched from or taken aboard ships. Before entering
territorial sea or contiguous zone, ships required to place weapons in
non-operative positions.

These claims are not
recognized by the U.S.

CONTINENTAL SHELF

Statement May 77

CM/

200nm

FISHING ZONE/EEZ

Statement May 77

200nm

EEZ.

Decree No. 30/C Jan 80

Decree-Law Apr 90

Decree No. 437/HDBT

Nov 80

Fishing permits
required for foreign-flagged fishing in the EEZ. Foreign ships are not permitted in 500m
safety zones around installations.

The historic claim is
not recognized by the U.S. U.S. protested historic claim in the agreement
in 1982.

Agreement

Aug 97

Maritime boundary
agreement with Thailand (Gulf of Thailand) signed.

Agreement

Dec 2000

Agreement with China on
demarcation of territorial sea, EEZand
continental shelf in the Gulf of Tonkin.

LOS CONVENTION

Dec82

Signed Convention.

Jul 94

Ratified Convention,
with Declaration reiterating claim of sovereignty over the disputed areas of
the Hoang Sa (Paracels) and Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelagoes; and claiming
the right to undertake effective measures for the management and defence of
its continental shelf and maritime zones.

STRAIGHT BASELINE LEGISLATION

Following is the text of
the Declaration of the Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam of 12
November 1982 establishing the straight baseline system.

In furtherance of
paragraph 1 of the declaration of May 12, 1977 of the Government of
the Socialist Republic of Vietnam concerning the territorial waters, the
contiguous zone, the exclusive economic zone and the continental shelf which
was already approved by the Standing Committee of the National Assembly of the
Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

The Government of the
Socialist Republic of Vietnam hereby defines the baseline used to measure the
width of the territorial waters of Vietnam:

1. The baseline used to
measure the width of the territorial waters of the continental part of Vietnam
is constituted by straight lines linking the points the coordinates of which
are mentioned in the Annex enclosed in this declaration.

2. The baseline used to
measure the width of the territorial waters of Vietnam going from point 0
- the meeting point of the two baselines used to measure the width of the
territorial waters of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and that of the
People's Republic of Kampuchea, located on the high sea and on a straight line
linking the Tho Chu archipelago to the Poulo Wai Island - - to Con Co Island
the coordinates of which are defined in the above-said Annex, is drawn on maps
of the 1/100,000 scale of the Vietnam People's Navy published prior to 1979.

3. The Bac Bo Gulf is a
gulf situated between the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the People's
Republic of China. The maritime frontier drawn in the gulf between Vietnam and
China is defined in Article 2 of the Convention on the Delimitation of the
Frontier between Vietnam and China signed on June 27, 1887 between France
and the Qing Dynasty. The waters in the part of the gulf belonging to Vietnam
constitute the historic waters pertaining to the juridical regime of the
internal waters of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The baseline from Con Co
Island to the opening of the gulf will be defined following the settlement of
the question of the opening line of the gulf.

4. The baseline used to
measure the width of the territorial waters of the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa
Archipelagoes will be determined in an ensuing text in conformity with
paragraph 5 of the declaration of May 12, 1977 of the Government of the
Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

5. The waters situated on
this side of the baseline of the territorial waters facing the coast and
islands of Vietnam form the internal waters of the Socialist Republic of
Vietnam.

6. The Government of the
Socialist Republic of Vietnam will solve with the countries concerned through
negotiations on the basis of mutual respect for each other's independence and
sovereignty and in conformity with international law and practice the differences
concerning the sea zones and the continental shelf of each country.

Annex

Coordinates of the
Points on the Baseline for Measuring the Width of Vietnam's Territorial Waters

TABLE C1.T301.

VIETNAM STRAIGHT BASELINE SYSTEM

GEOGRAPHIC
NAMES

LAT. North/

LONG. East

On the southwestern
demarcation line of historic waters of the S.R.V. and the P.R. of Kampuchea

A1 Hon Nhan Island, Tho
Chu Archipelago, Kien Giang Province

09°15.0’/103°27.0’

A2 Hon Da Island
southeast of Hon Khoai Island, Minh Hai Province

08°22.8’/103°27.0’

A3 Tai Lon Islet, Con
Dao Islet in Con Dao-Vung Tau Special Sector

08°37.8’/106°37.5’

A4 Bong Lai Islet, Con
Dao Islet

08°38'9’/106°37.5’

A5 Bay Canh Islet, Con
Dao Islet

08°39.7’/106°42.1’

A6 Hon Hai Islet (Phu
Qui group of Islands), Thuan Hai Province

09°58.0’/109°05.0’

A7 Hon Doi Islet, Thuan
Hai Province

12°39.0’/109°28.0’

A8 Dai Lanh point, Phu
Khanh Province

12°53.8’/109°27.2’

A9 Ong Can Islet, Phu
Khanh Province

13°54.0’/109°27.2’

A10 Ly Son Islet, Nghia
Binh Province

15°23.1’/109°27.2’

A11 At Con Co Island,
Binh Tri Thien Province

17°10.0’/107°20.6’

MARITIME BOUNDARY AGREEMENTS

VIETNAM – THAILAND

The
following is extracted from the Agreement between Vietnam and Thailand on the
Delimitation of the Maritime Boundary in the Gulf of Thailand, signed 9 August
1997.

Article 1

1. The maritime boundary
between the Kingdom of Thailand and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in the
relevant part of their overlapping continental shelf claims in the Gulf of
Thailand is a straight line drawn from Point C to Point K defined by latitude
and longitude as follows:

TABLE C1.T302.

VIETNAM - THAILAND
MARITIME BOUNDARY: GULF OF THAILAND

POINT

LATITUDE NORTH

LONGITUDE EAST

C

07 degrees 48'
00".0000

103 degrees 02'
30".0000

K

08 degrees 46'
54". 7754

102 degrees 12'
11".6542

2. Point C is the
northernmost point of the Joint Development Area established by the Memorandum
of Understanding between the Kingdom of Thailand and Malaysia on the
Establishment of a Joint Authority for the Exploitation of the Resources of the
Sea-Bed in a Defined Area of the Continental Shelf of the Two Countries in the
Gulf of Thailand, done at Chiangmai on 21 February 1979, and which coincides
with Point 43 of Malaysia's continental shelf claim advanced in 1979.

3. Point K is a point
situated on the maritime boundary between the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and
the Kingdom of Cambodia which is the straight line equidistant from Tho Chu
Islands and Poulo Wai drawn from Point 0 Latitude N 09 degrees 35'00".4159
and Longitude E 105 degrees 10'15".9805.

4. The coordinates of the
points specified in the above paragraphs are geographical coordinates derived
from the British Admiralty Chart No. 2414 which is attached as an Annex to this
Agreement. The geodetic and computational bases used are the Ellipsoid
Everest-1830-Indian Datum.

5. The maritime boundary
referred to in Paragraph 1 above shall constitute the boundary between the
continental shelf of the Kingdom of Thailand and the continental shelf of the
Socialist Republic of Vietnam, and shall also constitute the boundary between
the exclusive economic zone of the Kingdom of Thailand and the exclusive
economic zone of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

6. The actual location of
the above Points C and K at sea and of the straight line connecting them shall,
at the request of either Government, be determined by a method to be mutually
agreed upon by the hydrographic experts authorized for this purpose by the two
Governments.